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Horst Eidenmueller proposes that the Brexit negotiations should be mediated

23 Oct 2018

The Brexit negotiations have reached an impasse. Given the complexity of the issues, the many parties involved and affected, and the heterogeneity of their interests this was to be expected. In a newspaper article entitled “Pride and Prejudice” that appeared in the Sueddeutsche Zeitung in Germany on 16 October, Professor Eidenmueller argues that the Brexit negotiators should seek the help of professional mediators. Indeed, they should have done so already two years ago. Mediators can assist in designing a more effective negotiation and communication process, they can help regulate emotions and stimulate the joint generation of creative options. The Chequers proposal, for example, was dead on arrival simply because it was introduced as the UK’s proposal. Eidenmueller asserts that all European citizens, affected as they are by Brexit, have a right that the negotiating parties use all means that professional negotiators use day by day in divorce, neighbourhood and commercial conflicts. This includes mediation.

Professor Eidenmueller introduced the idea for the first time in an academic paper published in the Pepperdine Law Review in late 2016.